The following apparatus relates to the field of toys and games, and more particularly to a bumper toy puck that can be used in different kinds of games and/or be used as a marketing tool.
Sporting events and games, in general, can be played using any of a number of objects. For example, some objects used in sporting events include flying disks, balls, pucks or other such objects. With a kicking game such as soccer, for example, the participant usually elects to use a ball. If the game to be played is hockey, then a puck or ball is often used, depending on the playing field.
The use of a ball in a sporting event can be limiting. When kicked, a ball can travel upward through the air, which might not be desirable. The use of a hockey puck is also severely limited by the playing surface on which the participant chooses to play. A flat and smooth surface is an example of a playing field where the use of a standard, sliding, flat-bottomed puck is practical. However, if the playing surface is rough, as often experienced in street hockey, the use of such a flat-bottom puck is highly impractical.
A standard hockey puck used on an ice surface has the geometry of a short cylinder, about one inch thick and about three inches in diameter, and is often made of a hard rubber. When used on ice, the puck has tendency to slide on one of the disk faces, even when the puck starts out rolling on its side.
Hockey is also played on hard, non-ice surfaces, such as streets and roadways. When a conventional hockey puck is used on hard surfaces as such, the friction of the surface (greater than that of ice) tends to allow a rolling puck to remain rolling. Further, the friction of such hard surfaces is typically so great that a puck will not slide very far on one of the disk faces, generally not sufficiently far enough to be used in a hockey game, and never as far as would be expected playing on ice. Additionally, a conventional hockey puck has a tendency to bounce when used on such hard surfaces. Conventional hockey balls, which are typically plastic spheroids, are too light in weight and too soft to provide the desired feel and action akin to ice hockey.
Despite the disadvantages of many traditional pieces of sports equipment, such objects have been used as marketing tools. The desire to combine sporting events with marketing activities has long been sought after by various groups including advertisers, corporations, sponsors, sport enthusiasts and the like. Often times, this combination has lead to less than satisfactory results. Sporting events such as the great American past time of baseball have often included marketing themes. Such themes have utilized the printing of logos or labels on give-away baseball shirts, hats or gloves. However, such product use has produced limited success.
One of the disadvantages of using such give-away products for marketing purposes is that the give-away products are game specific. Once the recipients of these giveaway products turns to participate in another sporting event or game, the give-away object is no longer used. In the example of baseball give-away products, the recipients cannot use such a product if the recipients later decide to play soccer or hockey. The give-away products are game specific and will not be used in the next game. Another disadvantage of these give-away products is that the recipients often do not take notice to the logos or labels on the products. For the sports enthusiast, when a game is being played, logos or labels are often ignored. Often times, the logo, or label is not even visible during the play of the sporting event or game.
Accordingly, there is a need for a toy game puck that can be used successfully on different kinds of surfaces including rough surfaces such as roadways, sidewalks, concrete or carpet, and smooth surfaces such as ice or wood. There is a need for the toy game puck to have the feel and action similar to that of conventional game objects. Additionally, there is a need for a toy game puck that can be used in many different types of games. For marketing purposes, there is a need to have a toy game puck that allows the logo, label, or other advertising material to be visible during the play of the sporting event or game.
A bumper toy puck is illustrated that allows the play of many different sporting events and overcomes disadvantages of traditional balls and pucks. The bumper toy is a disk-shaped toy made with a highly elastic bumper around its perimeter that causes the toy to rebound and bounce. The toy can be thrown, kicked, hit with a stick and slid depending on what game the participant chooses to play.
The bumper toy has arcuate contact surfaces and a center portion that can be used to display marketing material. The bumper toy makes contact with any playing surface on its arcuate surface for allowing the desired feel and action of the game being played regardless of the playing surface. The toy is constructed out of a material having a low coefficient of friction for sliding across many playing surfaces.
The center portion may be constructed out of a transparent material which would allow the toy to house a logo for advertisement purposes, a personalized inscription, or devices including, but not limited to a light and/or sound source for highlighting the marketing material contained within the center portion of the toy. If the center portion is opaque, the space may still be filled with any of a number of items including but not limited to, equipment to transmit or record forces, images, positions, or other such data.
The toy also contains a middle portion that, depending on the implementation, may be an annular component. The middle portion supplies the basic framework for the toy. It is to this component that the above-mentioned center portion and the below-mentioned resilient bumper are mounted. The middle portion may be constructed out of almost any material provided that it is durable enough to withstand repeated kicking and/or repeated hitting. The middle portion may also be constructed from resilient material to increase the response of the toy to the application of a force.
The most distal component of the toy is a resilient bumper mounted to the middle portion, or integrally formed with the middle portion such that the combination acts as a bumper.
These aspects and other objects, features, and advantages are described in the following Detailed Description which is to be read in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.